Psychology 231 Syllabus
Experimental Psychology

Illinois State University
J. Cooper Cutting
Spring 2001, Sections 02, 05

Contact Information
General Course Information
Topic calendar
Textbooks
Course Resources
Class Mallard Page (Quizzes and Grades are here).
Extra-credit policy

Where and When?

Section 05: TuTh 9:35-10:50 in DeGarmo rm 463
Section 02: TuTh 11 - 12:15 in DeGarmo rm 463

Required	Optional
Martin, D (1999). Doing Psychology Experiments, 5th Edition. Monterey: Brooks and Cole Publishing. (required)	American Psychological Association. (1994). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (4thEdition.).Washington, DC: Author. (recommended).

Course Description & Objective.

This course is designed to introduce students to philosophy of science and inquiry with an emphasis on experimental methodology. This will be accomplished by combining traditional lectures with application of principles through laboratory experimentation and demonstration. The main course objectives include:
• Learning to review the primary literature (improving library research skills, increase familiarity with scientific writing and reading scientific journals)
  
• Getting a research idea (specification of a testable research idea, develop hypotheses on several topics in psychology)
  
• Development and execution of a research plan (choosing the appropriate research method to test specific hypotheses, ethical guidelines, how to collect data)
  
• Basic analysis of research results.
  
• Presentation of the results (including both a verbal and written presentation).
  

Roughly we will cover the "nuts and bolts" of putting together and completing a research project in psychology. To this end we will cover all thirteen chapters of the textbook. Classes will consist of both lectures and discussions and/or exercises related to the assigned readings. So it is critical that students read the assigned chapters prior to class. Homework and/or on-line quizzes will be assigned to facilitate learning and in-class discussions.

Course Requirements.

Each student will be evaluated based on several exercises, exams, and the planning, execution, and presentation of a research project. The grading is broken down below.
Exams (45%) - There will be three exams. Each is cumulative. Each exam will be worth 15% of your final grade.

Exercises (32%)

On-line Psychology Experiment (2%)
On-line Mallard Quizzes (14%) - there will be 7 on-line Mallard quizzes
Homeworks (16%) - there will be 8 homework assignments
• Independent/dependent variable assignment
• Library assignment
  
• 3 journal article summary assignments
• presenting data assignment
• poster presentation
• ethics assignment
Research project (23%)
Project Proposal (10%) - includes literature review, the design of the experiment(s) hypotheses/predictions, and the references.
Final APA style manuscript(13%) - A complete write-up of the class research project using APA format.
Extra-credit policy

Class Policies

Active participation is the central requirement for the class. Students will be expected to participate in a variety of ways, including several written and oral presentations and discussions. If you are going to miss a class, then you will miss an opportunity for participation. So it is critically important that you notify me AS SOON AS YOU KNOW that you'll be absent and WHY. Call, e-mail, or talk to me in person. Opportunity to make-up the missed work requires prior notification of the absence and an excused absence (that is one that you instructor accepts as reasonable and legitimate). How and when the work will be made up will be determined by the instructor.

To ensure a smooth flow of discussions, the following policies are established: Students are encouraged to listen with an open mind, respect the contributions of others, and avoid personal attacks. Students will often be faced with alternative viewpoints from the professor or their peers. Thus, students should be prepared to defend their own positions with empirical data, obtained from the assigned readings, and reasoned argument.

You are expected to do your own work. Plagiarism and cheating of any sort will not be tolerated. Either behavior will result in a grade of 'F'. Note that plagiarism includes situations where you meet with other students for group discussions and are asked write a summary. Unless otherwise instructed, this means that each participant in the group must write their own summary. Making up false excuses for absences will also be considered cheating and may result in a grade of 'F' for missed work.

And finally, if you have any questions regarding anything in the syllabus and or the course in general, please feel free to ask. Talk to me in class, via phone, or e-mail. Don't just assume that you know (or should know) the answer, I may not have been clear enough or may have forgotten to mention something.

The Office of Disability Concerns

Illinois State University is an institution and a faculty concerned with helping all of our students feel welcome, and with helping all students learn and develop to their full potential. Any student needing to arrange a reasonable accommodation for a documented disability should contact Disability Concerns at 350 Fell Hall, 438-5853 (voice), 438-8620 (TDD).